The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been empowered for the protection of public health by assuring the efficacy, safety and security of human and veterinary drugs, medical devices, biological drugs, food supply, cosmetics and the products that emit radiation. Moreover, FDA also seeks to provide health information in the public domain, which mainly is scientific-based.
FDA lays down appropriate guidelines for the development and regulation of new drugs. Moreover, FDA also issues rules pertaining to clinical trials that must be done on the new medications. Therefore, the pharmaceutical companies which are engaged in manufacturing as well as testing the drugs must test the drugs through four phases of clinical trials before they can be sold to the individuals.
The FDA's primary focus is enforcement of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C), but the agency also enforces other laws, notably Section 361 of the Public Health Service Act, as well as associated regulations. Much of this regulatory-enforcement work is not directly related to food or drugs, but involves such things as regulating lasers, cellular phones, and condoms, as well as control of disease in contexts varying from household pets to human sperm donated for use in assisted reproduction.
The FDA is led by the Commissioner of Food and Drugs, appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. The Commissioner reports to the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
The FDA has its headquarters in unincorporated White Oak, Maryland. The agency also has 223 field offices and 13 laboratories located throughout the 50 states, the United States Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. In 2008, the FDA began to post employees to foreign countries, including China, India, Costa Rica, Chile, Belgium, and the United Kingdom.
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